In the department of surgery, therapy using negative pressure is being performed for the purpose of promoting healing of surgical wound portions. In order to heal wound portions by using negative pressure, a suction head is associated with a vacuum device, that is, a suction device and is used for healing the wound portions. During healing the wound portions, the suction head is connected to the suction device to maintain proper negative pressure.
Typically, suction lines that are connected to vacuum pumps are built in wails of hospital wards or operating rooms in a hospital. A medical suction device is provided to control suction pressure or process inhaled objects by opening or closing valves provided in the suction lines.
First, a porous pad is attached to a wound portion and then surgical drapes are attached to cover the porous pad and the wound portion together, to thus seal the wound portion. One end of a drain tube is directly inserted into the porous pad at a state where the wound portion has been sealed, and a suction device that is connected to the other end of the drain tube is driven, to thus generate negative pressure in the inner side of the drapes. By doing so, exudates discharged from the wound is absorbed into the porous pad and discharged through the drain tube, to accordingly heal the wound.
In this case, the porous pad helps exudates escaping through the drain tube smoothly, by maintaining a predetermined gap between surface of a wound and drapes to thus continuously maintain negative pressure in the inside of the drapes.
Wall-mounted suction devices that are provided in the medical facilities of hospitals or portable suction devices with built-in electric pumps are used as the suction devices. Drain tubes are generally connected to the wall-mounted suction devices, respectively.
A conventional portable suction device will be described with reference to FIG. 1.
A portable suction device shown in FIG. 1 is disclosed in Korean Patent-Publication No. 10-0842895 entitled a tissue treatment apparatus using vacuum. The conventional suction device 10 includes: a porous pad 11; an electric pump 14 for giving negative pressure to a wound portion; an air-tight dressing 13; a connector 17 that hydraulically connects one end of a connection tube 16 with the dressing 13; a container 18 that is separably connected to the other end of the connection tube 16; a primary filter 20 that is positioned between the container 18 and the electric pump 14; a secondary filter 22 that is positioned between the primary filter 20 and the electric pump 14; and a pump drive control system 80 that changes pressure according to an interval of time to thus control the pressure applied to the electric pump 14.
The pump drive control system 80 determines an optimal driving frequency of the electric pump 14 that receives the pressure that is measured and transferred by a pressure sensor 82. The optimum driving frequency of the electric pump 14 is continuously determined by the pump drive control system 80. The electric pump 14 is driven at the determined optimum driving frequency.
However, the pump drive control system 80 changes the optimal driving frequency at which the electric pump 14 is driven, and contributes to extend battery life in a manner that pressure is controlled downwards when the pressure rises up to the maximum pressure, and is controlled upwards when the pressure falls down to the minimum pressure. However, since a pump drive power supply for driving a pump is not controlled on a turn-on and turn-off mode basis, it is limited to save the pump drive power supply using battery power.
In addition, since the pressure of the electric pump 14 can be maximized by using the pump drive control system 80 employing a variety of frequencies, the conventional suction device maximizes flow of the electric pump 14, that is, difference in negative pressure, to accordingly fail to minimize operation of the pump and restrict reduction of noise that occurs from the pump.
in FIG. 1, a reference numeral 12 denotes a wound portion, a reference numeral 15 denotes a secondary malodorous vapor filter, a reference numeral 23 denotes a malodorous vapor filter, a reference numeral 24 denotes a re-sealable access filter, a reference numeral 25 denotes an external exhaust filter, a reference numeral 84 denotes a controller, and a reference numeral 86 denotes a driving circuit.